Pepsi Is Giving Away Cash To Worthy Groups…

I will admit it… I’m not much of a Cola guy.

I never really “bought into” the Cola War… I thought that the amounts of money being thrown around were ridiculous.

Apparently, Pepsi also believes that there is a better use for their advertising dollars, because they are taking some serious money, and trying to do good in the world.

Pepsi is giving away cash to fund great ideas.

There are a number of different “grass-roots” organizations that have been put forward as suggestions… but ANYONE can suggest an idea.

From their Refresh Everything website, Pepsi says…

We’re looking for individuals, businesses, and non-profit organizations with ideas that will have a positive impact on communities.

Anyone can submit an idea, and you just have to log in, to vote for your favorites.

Every “cycle” (2 month period) Pepsi is accepting up to 300 entries from different Organizations, looking for funding.

So, for instance, a number of groups made submissions in August, and the “suggestions” of those groups will receive votes from the public, from September 1st through October 31st.

The “prizes” being awarded to the Groups are:

– 1 award of $100,000

– 2 awards of $25,000

– 3 awards of $10,000

– 4 awards of $5,000

So, every two months, Pepsi is kicking out $200,000 to deserving Charities and Organizations.

There are a number of different categories:  Health, Arts & Culture, Food & Shelter, The Planet, Neighborhoods and Education.

You get 10 votes every day, and can vote for any project once, per day.

As far as projects that are “local” to me, I found “Covenant House” (a Vancouver shelter for homeless Youth), “S.A.I.N.T.S” (Senior Animals In Need Today Society), “BCSPCA” (BC Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals), and more.

These are the finalists, who get a share of the first $200,000 !

I would encourage everyone to take a few seconds, log in to the Pepsi Refresh Project page, and help decide how to spend Pepsi‘s money !!!